I do not own DP. There, I said it. Stop laughing.
Thanks for the reviews from:
the sleep warrior- Yes, when I mentioned Jazz back there it was a typo. Sorry if I confused anyone. That was supposed to be Ronnie.
And about the eye-sparking thing, first of all, I thought that it had to be something he'd really notice, and second, he acquired his powers in a different way than Danny, so it makes sense that his ghost sense, as well as his other powers, would be a bit different, though their basic ghost powers are the same. As to the Phantom Menace thing, I can't believe I missed that! You're welcome on the advice, by the way.
Read on!
Chapter 6 (Dark Fire)
"You're joking!" Ronnie almost screeched as I told her the bad news, "How on earth could she have figured it out?"
"I don't know either," I answered. "She seemed so sure it was me because of-- uh oh."
"What? What is it?" she asked curiously.
"It's her," I said quietly, almost paralyzed, "The lunchlady at our school, it's gotta be her!"
Ronnie gave me a weird look, so I explained, "When Dynastina had me restrained, she mentioned that she recognized me because, first off, I'd eaten too many of her "delectibles." Second, she asked if I could be the little blind boy that thinks cheese is cheese, no matter what it's spread on. Who else could it be!"
"You know, I think you're actually right," Ronnie said after a moment of thought, "Well, we've figured out the link between Dynastina and everyone's dark moods."
"How do you mean?" I asked. Now it was my turn to be mystified.
"Think about it. New lunchlady comes, so does triple cheese pizza. Triple cheese pizza comes, so does unusually bad behaviour in students. Bad behaviour comes, so does Dynastina. Can you think of why she would want people to act so darkly?"
"She a sorceress of fire, and she called that bad behaviour the "dark flames in our hearts". Every time she absorbed that stuff she seemed to grow larger and stronger."
"We get back in school tomorrow," Ronnie said out of the blue. After a split second of thought our heads whipped around and we yelled, "The school!"
"So we're sure she's gonna be here?" I asked as we flew there. "Do we even know how we're going to beat her?"
"No, we don't, but we've got to stop her before she can harvest anymore energy and she grows too powerful for us to handle. It's now or never."
We landed just outside the schoolgrounds, behind a clump of bushes. "You stay here and keep watch. I'll go after Dynastina, ok?"
"Fine, I'll do it, but I won't like it," she sulked as she sat down on the cool ground.
"Alright then," I said expectantly, cracking my knuckles, "Let's rock."
Moving as cautiously and quietly as I possibly could I worked my way along the schoolyard. Even though I was invisible, able to ghost through anything, and flying, I was taking no chances.
The halls were dark, and if not for the excellent night vision my ghost eyes allowed me I might not have been able to see at all.
The courtyard, the front office, various rooms and labs, all seemed so dark and secluded. Just as I was crossing the gym I stopped. I waited for a moment, then the sound came again. The tiniest hint of laughter.
As slowly as I possibly could I phased through the floor, ending up in the basement. It was dark. Very dark. But the laughter was louder now, more discernible from the usual background noise.
Very stealthily I moved towards the noise, until I was directly under the school kitchens. I watched in silence from one of the grates as I beheld a horrific spectacle. Dynastina was there alright. And she was very busy indeed.
Huge platters held enormous amounts of pizza. That was where the small goodness in this act ended. As I watched, she spoke some strange enchantment that I couldn't capture, and a rip appeared in thin air. It grew larger and larger until I could tell that it was a swirling green.
The gorge rose in my throat as numerous tiny spirits flooded from the rip and swarmed over the pizza. In a minute they were gone, having burrowed into the pizza itself.
"YES, MY CHILDREN," Dynastina cooed suddenly, "STAY THERE AND GROW A WHILE, THEN WHEN THEY EAT YOU, GROW AND FESTER. POISON THEIR HEARTS WITH YOUR MALICE! THEN I, THE PRINCESS OF ALL THINGS PYRO, SHALL RULE THIS GLOBE!"
"INDEED, MY CREATURES DO DARKEN THE HEARTS OF THE INNOCENT, DO THEY NOT, BOY?" I had about a split second to fly from my hiding place before she melted it with a quick flick of her hand.
I landed on the floor, facing her, and exclaimed, "So you're the reason that everyone's acting so weird! Those spirits infect the pizzas, then they infect the student body, then you come along and harvest the very hatred you've bred in the first place!"
"VERY GOOD, BOY. THEIR WORK HAS ALREADY BEGUN. YOU WILL BE ONE OF THE FIRST TO BE FULLY HARVESTED. A MIDNIGHT SNACK, IF YOU WILL. BY THE TIME I'M DONE HERE, I'M GOING TO HAVE TO START WORRYING ABOUT MY WAISTLINE."
"Don't think you're going to get the opportunity," I threatened as I charged forward.
"TASEN KIMAS!" she shrieked. A huge bolt of blue flame shot from her fingertips. I ducked as fast as I could, and the attack missed. Barely.
"KAUMUS STROTH!" as a whip of flame flicked from her right hand. I tried to evade the vicious weapon, but I was caught by it underneath my left arm. The kitchen soon became a maelstrom of flame.
I was getting singed, while Dynastina was having a ball at my expense.
Finally, her lash whipped across my face, and I fell heavily to the ground. I struggled to my elbows and knees, when her foot lashed out and caught me in the stomach. I hit the ground a few feet away and rolled until my back came in contact with the counter. No matter how much I heaved and I groaned I couldn't move.
"IT IS USELESS TO RESIST ME, BOY," Dynastina taunted, her body wreathed in light blue flames, "ESPECIALLY WITH MY SEEDS PLANTED AND GROWING IN YOUR HEART."
She snickered, then summoned her chains of flame and lifted me into the air, until we were standing eye to eye, literally speaking.
"THE DARKNESS IN YOUR HEART HAS GROWN, CHILD. AND IT HAS GROWN QUICKLY."
"You're wrong," I rasped back, "I'm not like that. I am not consumed by hate, and poison. I cannot let you kill me."
She grinned from malicious ear to ear, and lifted my mask with both hands, then placed each hand just below my ears. It burned, and I tried to recoil at the touch.
"GIVE ME YOUR SOUL. GIVE ME THE DARKNESS IN YOUR HEART. GIVE ME ... OMNIPOTENCE." I could see and feel the energy inside me leaving.
Dark wisps of flame were slowly crawling up her arms, until they were absorbed into her, at about her shoulders. There must be some way to beat her, I thought to myself. If I could just find some way to stop her. A charm, a ward, a spell, a-- a spell?
An idea came to me, and summoning up the last of my strength I shifted my arms slowly forward.
"STILL TRYING TO STOP ME? MY DEAR BOY YOU ARE ALREADY SO DAMNED THERE WOULD BE NOTHING A THOUSAND OF YOU COULD DO ABOUT IT!" I persisted, and the chains around my wrists tightened and contracted. My arms were jerked back, but only marginally.
I was still struggling against the intense heat, trying to reach my target.
Just then a familiar, monotone computer voice chirped, "Ghost detected. Engaging anti-ghost spray. Fire!"
I watched in what could have almost been merriment as Dynastina was covered in several inches of ghost goo. Her powers momentarily nullified, I rushed forward and clapped my hands against the sides of her face.
"Listen to me!" I roared at the top of my voice, my eyes closed. Energy sizzled and sparked from my fingertips in a blaze of white light as my mind delved into Dynastina's, searching for the one tiny piece of information that could stop her.
I feel it, I said to myself. I could feel that tiny piece of information floating just beyond my grasp. There!
With a slight lunge I took hold of it, and I knew what I had to do.
My eyes snapped open, and I beheld Dynastina's snarling visage. She knew what I had been searching for. My eyes opened wide for a moment, then a triumphant grin spread across my face. Her own visage turned to a look of what one might describe as fear.
"Kassil," I rasped quietly.
"NNNNNNNNOOOOOOOOOO!" she shrieked as a green rip appeared in front of her face. She was quickly sucked into its considerable pull, as were her malicious little minions. Even cheese couldn't protect them from the power of a Ghost Portal.
The Portal still hadn't closed after a few minutes, and I wondered at this until the rest of the little spirits that were already inside people were sucked in. After the Ghost Portal had closed, I fell to my knees, panting for breath.
My eyes were closed, so I didn't notice Ronnie step forward and kneel beside me until she asked me to breath through my nose.
I complied, and she started pouring cool, sweet water down my throat. I sucked it down gratefully, great gulps of life's nectar flowing down my throat.
After what seemed like way too short a time, the water stopped, and I was hoisted to my feet. Ronnie and I spent the next hour or so limping home.
The next morning I felt much better. I checked my injuries, and aside from the odd rough scar that indicated where I had been injured, there was no other sign of the previous night's triumphant battle save my own slight exhaustion. And that was fading with every passing minute.
I stopped at the top of the stairs when I heard mom speaking very, very sternly.
"You, young lady, are grounded for the next two weeks. No extracurriculars, no friends, and if you're not home each day by four, then your grounding will be extended by another week. Is that completely clear?"
"Yes mom," Ronnie answered resignedly.
"Good. Now go get your brother and tell him to get down here. I need to talk to him as well." I heard Ronnie come up the stairs towards me. "Brace yourself for the hurricane," was all she said, and all she needed to say.
Putting my training to work I moved down the stairs as stealthily as a jungle cat.
Balancing on the ball of each foot I crept down the side of the stairs. Every time I set one foot down my toes grasped the rough surface to keep me from sliding. After a short while I came to the bottom of the stairs, where I could feel the atmosphere instantly change.
I heard mom sit down in a chair by the table.
She let the tension build for a moment before she spoke, "I'm not happy, Tirrell. Not happy at all."
"Where were you and your sister last night? I went up to check on you both and you were gone."
"It's a long story," I began. I didn't know what to say after that, but I didn't get the opportunity anyway.
"It's a long story that the news picked up quite well," she said flatly. I heard a tape rewinding, then the entire fight scene and more rolled out.
"I'm Gichin Avatzu reporting this scene, taken from the security camera in the cafeteria of the local highschool."
"It would appear that last night, just after reconstruction of the damaged building had finished, a strange-looking woman, possibly the same ghost that has been seen harassing our small town for the last couple weeks, tried to perform some arcane ritual on the cafeteria's cheese pizzas."
"Before she could finish doing so, however, she was thwarted by what looks to be a smaller ghost, dressed in a white ninja uniform."
"The smaller ghost, after the larger one had been covered in some sort of strange goo, appears to have zapped the other, then opened a portal and banished her and whatever she was putting into the pizza to some unknown location."
"After the woman ghost was gone, it appeared as though a young girl assisted the Ghost Ninja and helped him away. The identity of this girl has yet to be discovered.
"I'm Gichin Avatzu, signing off." The TV flicked off, and I heard mom turn back towards me in her seat. Here it comes, I thought to myself.
"Now I'm not sure who those two ghosts were, Tirrell, but I'm almost positive that the girl helping that "Yurei Ninja" after the fight was your sister. Now pray tell, where were you during all of this?"
"Uh, I was standing watch," I said rather weakly. "Outside the school, so that nobody would try and enter school grounds."
I could feel mom's eyes boring into me, and I tried to keep from betraying any of my emotions.
Finally she said, "I believe you, Tirrell. It's certainly a very plausible truth. But I would ask you to keep an eye... sorry, an ear, on your sister. If there's anything between her and this ninja ghost, I want to know about it."
"You'll be grounded for the next week, and if you're not home by five each night then your grounding will be extended another two weeks. Am I making myself clear?"
The part of me that wasn't totally grossed out replied, "Perfectly," and I left.
"And she thinks that there may be something between this Ghost Ninja and me?" she almost exclaimed. I nodded.
"Eeeeewwwwwww! That's sick," she said, sticking out her tongue in disgust.
"My thoughts exactly," I answered, "But keep in mind that she doesn't know about it, so she can mess up facts. Let's just try and keep the secret quiet for the next little while and break it to her when the time is right. As to when that is, I haven't the slightest inkling."